Sunday, September 13, 2009

Precipitampabayation

I don't get to use my "Nine? Nein!" title, because the Red Sox finally scored 9 runs in a game in 2009. 9-1 Jupiter Pluvius-shortened victory. 7.5 back. Again, I "wish" there was no wild card and the entire organization was hell-bent on steamrolling back and winning the division miraculously, but, of course, I know we can win it all by getting the wild card, so if we get that, fine. But still, I'm rooting for the division! Even if the management is resigned to just getting in the door. But then if we win the division and lose in the ALDS, it was all pointless. See why I hate the wild card? My main goal has nothing to do with the regular season.

Kim and I had to take a little emergency cat-related trip tonight (don't worry, complete stranger, they're fine). When we got in the car to start the ten-mile drive home, Alex Gonzalez was stealing a base. When we got home, he was up again! Nice eight-run inning by us. Even if Pedroia ruined it by diving into first. Granted, he looked safe anyway, but it's always seemed obvious to me that running through a finish line gets you there faster than sliding on the ground before it does. The only reason you slide into second and third is because you can get tagged out if you run past it. It's the fastest way to get there without going past. Unless you're avoiding a tag, don't slide into first! That's the second time he's done that recently. I wasn't too pissed since we were up by so much. Still, a replay of that would have been nice. And I should point out that Dustin DID do something he normally doesn't do--keeping the tag on Fey-Rod when he slipped on second base and fell off. Unfortunately, he put his hand on the bag immediately as he fell and was safe anyway.

And speaking of stuff I've complained about that our guys do--Jacoby made a nice tag-avoidance at the plate recently, but then he did have a blunder (though it probably was Hale's fault) between third and home on Wednesday....

On Gonzalez' three-run double, NESN didn't show the third run score. Which I would've been all for had they been showing a closer play at another base, knowing we knew the run would score easily. But that wasn't the case. They just kind of showed a wide shot of the field, omitting only home plate so we never saw that third runner score (even though I knew when the ball landed over the outfielder's head that three runs would score since there were two out. But seriously, that cameraman that sits behind the plate above the screen must be a rookie. He just never knows where to point that thing! I'm not even gonna close these parentheses, it just seems pointless now....

That Thayer guy pitched! Didn't I take a picture of him at a PawSox game this year? Pretty sure it was the same guy.

I'm smelling another Yankee meltdown, and the smell is making me hungry!After the sweep of the O's, one of the trolls that Allan has locked out of JoS commented on Ish's blog that "anybody can beat the O's. So what? Why are you guys excited about that"HA!Now that they've lost 2 straight home games to them, I went back to copy the quote and use it but it had been removed.Typical revisionist history

It was just this thing where one cat kept going to the litter box and that stopped but then the other started doing it, so we just took 'em both in. Just have to give them some meds now. They'll be okay.

I think it four-time AL HBP leader Chet Lemon who used to routinely dive into first base on a close play. I've seen other players do it, but Lemon actually made it look as if the dive got him there faster than if he'd just run across the bag. Not sure if it was faster, but one televised game (must have been in the early-to-mid 80s) showed a replay over and over of him diving into first, and I remember that he barely touched the ground with his hands/arms before crumpling into first. (He was out anyway.) On other dives, he would actually slide right over the bag as if it were flush with the ground. Not sure how he did that.

Hey, if you can do it in a way that definitely gets you there faster, fine. It should definitely involve going past the bag as opposed to sliding way in advance and slowing down as your body rumbles along before you reach. In fact, I bet if you thought of the base as a springboard to a dive or jump, you'd get there faster. You'd look silly hitting the base and THEN flying through the air, but you could only gain speed (right up to the base) that way.